Illuminated sign



I A. NOLAN. ILLUMINATED SIGN.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 23, I9I8.

Patented Feb. 10, 1920.

ATOHNEY TI-IADDEUS A. NOLAN, OF CINCINNATI, QI-IIO.

ILLUMINATED SIGN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 10, 1920.

Application filed November 23, 1918. Serial No. 263,911.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THADDEUs A. NoLAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio,have invented a new and useful Illuminated Sign, of which the followingis a specification.

An object of my invention is to produce an illuminated sign of the typeemployingprojection apparatus, in which more than one projectionapparatus is simultaneously employed for the projection of the subjectmatter to be projected.

A further object is to produce an illuminated sign in which more thanone projection apparatus is simultaneously employed for the purpose ofmore brilliantly illuminating the projected images of the subject matterof the sign.

A further object is to produce an illumi nated sign in which more thanone projection apparatus is simultaneously employed to enable images ofgreater proportions to be projected than has heretofore been possible bythe use of but a single projecting apparatus.

A further object of my invention is to produce an i luminated sign inwhich the characters may be made to appear upon and move-across the signin proper sequence and in uniform regularity without changing lightintensity in their movement.

A further object is to produce an illuminated sign in which eachcharacter is pro duced by a separate instrumentality and source ofillumination which remains stationary relatively to the display portionof the sign, but which permits of the transfer of each character fromone instrumentality and source of illumination to the next adj acentinstrumentality and source of illumination throughout the travel of thesign characters across the sight portion of the sign.

These and other objects are attained in the sign construction describedin the following specification.

I have illustrated two forms of sign embodying my invention, for thestationary as well as for the moving projection of character images uponthe sight portion of the sign.

Figure 1 discloses a somewhat diagrammatic view of my improved signdesigned for the moving projection of the images or characters to bedisplayed.

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a sign embodying my invention and designedfor the stationary projection of characters to be displayed.

The sight portion of the form of my improved sign disclosed in Fig. -1upon which the characters of the sign are rendered visible preferablyconsists of a sheet or several sheets of translucent material such asfrosted or ground glass 1. Back of this sight portion I preferablylocate the remainder of the sign mechanism consisting of a transparentmedium 2 bearing the sign characters to be thrown upon the sightportion,v and the battery of individual character projectors 3, 4, 5, 6and 7 by means of which the sign characters are projected onto the sightportion 1. This may be arranged for the projection of the signcharacters from the front instead of fromthe rear of the sight portionif desired.

The transparent character bearing medium 2 may be a film constructedmuch like that used 1n the production of motion pic-' tures. Printed orotherwise marked on this film are the characters to be projected on thesight portion. The characters are located on the film in as manyduplicate lines bearing the legend to be displayed as there areprojectors. the corresponding characters in the corresponding words ofthe legend appearing in adjacent lines of the film may be staggered withrelation to one another for a purpose to be presently described.

Each of the projectors 3, .4, 5, 6 and '3' preferably consists of a lenstube 8 of the usual construction to be found in picture projectionapparatus, which is located in front of the film containing thecharacters to be projected, a condenser lens 9 located back of the filmand in alinement with the lens tube, a source of illumination 10 locatedback of the condenser lens, and a reflector 11 located back of thesource of illumination and in focus with the source of illumination toproject its light through the projector lens and lens tube. The locationof each projector is such that but one projector is provided for eachline of characters on the film, the illustrated embodiment of myinvention showing the projectors so positioned apart as to project theimages of the characters which are in register w th them onto the sightportion 1 of the s gn and in the proper relatively spaced position Alsoit will be seen that with relation to each other. Thus projector 3 ispositioned and focused to project the images of all the characters fromthe first line 12 of the-film, onto the sight portion 1 of the sign andinto the first space 13 thereof. Projector 4 is positioned and focusedto project the images of all characters on line 14 of the film intospace 15 of the sign. Similarly projectors 5, 6, and 7 are positionedand focused to project the images of all characters on respective lines16, 18, and 20 of the film, upon the respective spaces 17 19, and 21 ofthe sight portion of the sign. I

s In the illustrationI have used by Way of example the legend THE SONGSOF LONG AGO. Since projector 7 projects the characters of lower line 20into space 21 of the sight portion of the sign, the character T which islocated back of the lens tube 8 of projector 7, will project image T tothe sight portion 1 as shown. The same being repeated in each of thelines of the film,

line 18 will also bear it, but the position of J the characters of thelegend with relation to those on line 20 will be different since thenext image to be thrown on the sight portion is H as shown. The image Eis likewise produced by the staggered location of the legend on line 16with relation to the legends of lines 18 and 20. The blank space 15between the words appearing on the sight portion is produced by a blankspace in line 14 between the words THE and SONGS appearing in the legendthereof which shuts off the light of projector 1 as shown. Letter S inthe sight portion is produced by the projection of the first S of theword SONGS in the legend of line 12 of the film by means of projector 3.

In the operation of the above described elements of my improved sign theaction is as follows: Assuming the lamps 10 to be lighted and the filmmoved at the desired speed back of lens tubes 8 in the direction ofarrow A, the movement of the images of the characters upon the sightportion of the sign will take place in the direction of arrow B inaccordance with the well known action produced by the, lens ofprojection apparatus, the images appearing in reinverted position asshown.

As character T asses from behind lens tube 8 of projector it-passes offthe sight portion of the sign and is immediately followed by the H whichis shown in line 20 ready to pass back of the lens tube. Simultaneouslywith this the H in space 10 is being supplanted by the E of line 18, theE of space 17 is being supplanted by the blank in line 16, the blank ofspace 13 is supplanted by the S of line 14:, and the S of space 13 issupplanted by the O of line 12. This action continues as the film ismoved, the successive characters following each other across the sightportion as they are brought by the movement of the film behind the lenstubes. The effect produced by this is the movement ofthe sign charactersacross the sight portion in regular order thus permitting the signmatter to be read easily and without the flickering and flashing actionfound in the usual moving electric sign. In addition the ,characters maytake on natural and correct shapes and be produced in any color orcolors desired without having to be limited by a set series of lamps orother devices on the sight portion thereof or any element adjacentthereto.

Although I have thus far described my improved sign as being designedtoproject the image'of but one character from each projector, it is myintention also to so subdivide the subject matter of the sign to bedisplayed that more than one character is exposed to each of theprojectors. Such an arrangement is disclosed in Fig. 2 in which theprojector 22 is located to project the characters OW of the word SHOWand the projector 23 is located to project the characters SH. Thecharacters are located upon the transparent character-bearing medium 24in reversed and inverted order in order to have them appear upon thesight portion 25 in proper order and condition as shown.

Such a sign as I have just described is not particularly designed forthe projection of images in motion, but is intended to show more clearlythat the principal idea of my invention is to produce character imagesof larger proportion and having more clearly defined outlines than hasbeen heretofore possible when but a single projector is employed for theentire sign matter in successive positions across the sight portion ofthe sign.

2. A sign comprising a sight portion, a character bearingelement locatedadjacent to the sight portlon, having a series of duplicate lines ofcharacters thereon, and in staggered relation to each other, and meansadapted to project the images of like characters in adjacent linessuccessively and in successive positions across the sight portion. ofthe sign.

3. A sign comprising a sight portion adapted to display a limited numberof character images simultaneously, a character bearing element locatedadjacent to the sight portion, a series of duplicate lines of charactersupon the element corresponding in number to the number of characterimages simultaneously displayed on the sight portion and having the samecharacters of adjacent lines in staggered relation to each other, andseparate means adapted to project the image of each character to be si--adjacent lines of the film as to project the images of successivecharacters upon the sight portion when the film is moved.

5. A sign comprising a sight portion, a character bearing film adjacentto the sight portion, having a series of duplicate lines of charactersthereon and in staggered relation to each other, and a projectionapparatus for each line of characters focused upon a distinct part ofthe sight portion and so located with relation to the characters onadjacent lines of the film as to project the images of successivecharacters upon the sight portion When the film is moved.

6. A sign comprising a sight portion, a character bearin element locatedadjacent to the sight portion, having a series of duplicate lines ofcharacters thereon, and means adapted to project upon the sight portionof the sign the images of successive characters of the legend to bedisplayed, from corresponding characters in adjacent lines of thecharacter bearing element.

7. A sign comprising a sight portion, a character bearing film adjacentto the sight portion, having a series of duplicate lines of charactersthereon, and a projection apparatus for each line of characters, eachprojection apparatus being focused upon a distinct part of the sightportion and having its focal point so located with relation to the focalpoints of the rojection apparatus for the adjacent line 0? part of thesight portion of the sign and project the images of the successivecharacters in the legend to be displayed, in proper order when the filmis moved, upon the respective parts of the sight portion upon which theprojection apparatus are focused.

THADDEUS A. NOLAN.

the film as to cover its

